this week i

filled out the customs and immigration forms for the pleasant, illiterate woman next to me on the plane. oh also, my first flight where - moments before touchdown - the attendant had to yell at people over the loudspeaker to sit t.f. down immediately.

worked on, you guessed it, survey methodology. here's my boss for the week. they've spent the past year constructing water, sanitation, and hygiene stations around earthquake refugee camps. last april they conducted an initial survey of camp dwellers and next month they'll conduct another to see if they can measure any improvement in access to clean water and other stuff that you and i take for granted.

calculated a desired sample of 376 survey respondents in order to detect changes that were at least improvements of ten percent. for example, if 50% of camp dwellers had clean water back when the initial survey was conducted in april but now 60% of camp dwellers have clean water when the survey is re-administered in december, a data set with 376 responses will be enough to measure a statistically significant improvement. and, might i add, more than 376 responses would be a waste of money.

hope they'll send more work i can do remotely. btw, their main on-site office used to be a kindergarden. good for morale.

commuted by company suv. with roads so bumpy and pot-holed, even dual-rose-electrified-panther dashboard ornaments come with a carpenter's level.